Luang Prabang - Vang Vieng

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The alarm was set for 6 this morning. Rach was shattered though and didn’t hear it and slept for a further 30 mins. Dom was up and nearly ready by this point. We packed up and were picked up by tuk tuk at 7 to take us to the bus station. We got some breakfast and boarded the VIP bus ready for it to leave at 0800hrs. It was a brightly colored reasonable standard coach with air con- an absolute must for long journeys! We both slept for the first couple of hours on and off. The scenery was beautiful. The sky was mostly blue with a few white fluffy clouds and the road on which we were traveling wound round and round and up and down the mountains passing the occasional self sufficient villages made of wood.

As the bends were so tight the driver had to beep his horn to allow oncoming traffic to know he was coming. However we reached one bend and a car was coming the other way so the coach driver pulled in closer to the drainage ditch, which was alongside the road. There was a big scraping noise and the coach got stuck. After making it worse by reversing back slightly and rolling forwards, then stalling a few times we managed to get going again. The journey from here onwards was a little hairy and the coach swayed from side to side. We stopped at a vi8lliage for lunch but neither of us ate much (the food looked, smelt and tasted horrible!). We got back to the bus and traveled past many jagged rock formations and field after field of rice plants, some being picked.

We arrived at Vang Vieng Bus station at 3pm, an hour late. We got a tuk tuk to the guesthouse ( again picked from the guide book) called Vang Vieng Orchid and opted for a slightly more expensive room, still only 9 pounds a night, giving us air con and balcony with an amazing view of the river Nam Son and the hills. We then explored and went to find a tour agency to book our activities for the next day. Again we got lost but found one in the end.

We had dinner in Erawan restaurant (great food but slow service). When we got back to the room there were loads of small lizards on our balcony (11+) and a huge grasshopper (15cm long!) and so opted to stay in the nice cool room because it had been such a hot day. We did some washing but there was no plughole so Dom came up with a genius idea to use a plastic bag like a pond liner.

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